Unfortunately, there is as yet no smartphone application that can paint your walls, refinish your hardwood floors, assemble built-in cabinetry, or perform a complete overhaul on your master bath. But there is one that can help you to do these upgrades on your own rather than having to rely on a pricy contractor and his crew every time you want to make a change to your interior space. You might be surprised to learn just how many tasks within your home you are capable of tackling, especially if you are skeptical about even simple tasks like installing a new lighting fixture or painting a room. But with the Handy Man DIY app, home repair and renovation projects are a lot easier. Here are just a few of the benefits you’ll get when you shell out the buck ninety-nine required to download this app to your smartphone or tablet.

The first thing you’ll enjoy is access to instructions and how-to videos for common projects that many homeowners choose to tackle on their own. While you can almost get the same information by flipping through a home repair book or searching for videos online, Handy Man DIY has both in one app that you can take with you anywhere in your home. Of course, you can also take it with you to the hardware store when you go to buy the materials you’ll need to complete the task at hand. And it is in this capacity that the app really shines.

Handy Man DIY has plenty of great features to help you out not only while you’re doing your project, but also during the planning phase. For example, it provides you with templates that come complete with fill-in-the-blank boxes to measure any room you’re planning to renovate. In addition, you can calculate the dimensions of your room (including volume) based on your measurements and even remove space that is taken up by windows and doors in the process. But it gets even better; you can further use these calculations to decide the amount of materials (paint, lumber, etc.) that you’ll need to complete the job you have in mind.

And while you can definitely create your own list of materials, the app allows you to select from a pre-programmed list of common materials to make the process easier, and it also has preset projects that come complete with a materials list for you to follow. So all you have to do is choose the task, take your room measurements, head to the store to pick up materials, and follow the tutorial to complete your own home repairs or upgrades. It will even calculate an estimated cost for your project based on materials needed and the size of your space.

Could this app be any more useful? The answer is yes. It can also give you seasonal reminder alerts for common household maintenance (like cleaning rain gutters, for example). Handy Man DIY may not find you lower mortgage rates, but it could help you to increase the value of your home without spending a ton of money for labor, making it one handy app that the weekend warriors with home improvement on their mind cannot do without.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

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